Gourds gone: Up to 375 pumpkins stolen from Buckeye farm

Someone stole up to 375 pumpkins of various sizes from a pumpkin patch in Buckeye just days before the last weekend of a working farm's annual Fall Festival, according to police.

The gourds were reported stolen from the Rocker 7 Farm Patch, 19601 W. Broadway Road in Buckeye, after the loss was discovered Wednesday morning, Buckeye police said.

"I know 300 pumpkins doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it's probably worth around $3,000, and that's about fifteen percent of our total pumpkin sales for this year," said Kelly Stecker, festival director at Rocker 7.

Stecker said festival staff left around 7:15 p.m. Sunday night, and the owners of the farm didn't notice any pumpkins missing on Monday or Tuesday. They believe the theft happened sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. No other vandalism or theft occurred on the property.

Rocker 7 posted about the stolen pumpkins on its Facebook page Wednesday but reassured visitors that the patch would be fully stocked for the final weekend of its annual Fall Festival, this Friday through Sunday. The festival features a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, a petting zoo, food trucks, a farmers market and other attractions.

"This is the third year that the festival's been open, and nothing like this has happened in the past, not on this scale," Stecker said. "There really isn't any security, so clearly we will be rethinking that for next year."

The pumpkin thieves stole medium, large and jumbo-sized pumpkins that range in price from $8 to $18, but left most of the small pumpkins that are given to students on field trips, she said.

Stecker speculated that whoever stole the pumpkins is familiar with the area and the dirt roads surrounding the farm patch and would have needed to use a pickup truck or cargo van to carry the weight of 300-plus pumpkins.

The owners of Rocker 7 Farms and Rocker 7 Farm Patch, Brandon and Katie Leister, were able to work with their pumpkin suppliers in New Mexico to quickly replenish the empty field with pumpkins by the weekend, Stecker said.

Along with the festival, the farm patch also hosts hundreds of students for school field trips weekly. Stecker estimated that about 800 students visited the farm just this week.

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Although the loss of pumpkins set them back quite a bit, the dedicated staff at Rocker 7 will come together and overcome this obstacle to ensure that visitors have a great time at the festival this weekend, Stecker said.

"We will be ready to go Friday morning, and it's going to be business as usual," Stecker said. "It's tremendous to me to see how much support we've had on social media just from Buckeye residents, local business owners and people that just know the farm owners or have been here and had a good time with their families. ... I'm hoping this is a really big weekend for us."

Buckeye police were investigating but had no leads or suspects, a department spokesman said.

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